Water watch​

The Water Justice international blog

Around the world, a wave of remunicipalisation has returned water services to the public hands - most of the time, after decades of private mismanagement.

A study by the Transnational Institute shows that, globally, the cases of remunicipalisation have increased from two cases in two countries in 2000, when less than one million people in total were affected by remunicipalisation, to 235 cases in 37 countries byMarch 2015. By then, the total number of people served by remunicipalised water services had grown to exceed 100 million.

Cases are more concentrated in high-income countries, where 184 remunicipalisations took place in the last 15 years, compared to 51 cases in middle and low-income countries.Two countries, France with 94 cases and the US with 58 cases, account for the great majority of cases in high-income countries. The number of remunicipalisation cases has nearly doubled after 2009, in France, due to mainly the example of Paris which signalled an even stronger acceleration.

We are interested in hearing about the situation in your country, especially in low and middle-income countries, where the wave of remunicipalisation seems to be yet weaker. Join our movement to stop privatisation of water provision and sanitation services or reverse it where it had already happened. Contact us on waterjusticeinternational@gmail.org or through comments on our blog.